


Worms

by Muroj



Category: System Shock (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, poor goggles :(, some gross descriptions of worms and eating them, thats what it's about anyways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23615122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muroj/pseuds/Muroj
Summary: What do you do when you don't even have enough nanites to get a bag of chips? Use your head, of course. Or the implants embedded into it.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Worms

**Author's Note:**

> I recently went back to progress through an SS2 playthrough, and seeing the piles of worms reminded me that, well, you can eat them to regain some HP. My angst brain came up with the rest pretty easily. You also get to see a couple Cool™ headcanons about how certain things work.

He found himself in one of the restrooms in the crew quarters section of the MedSci deck, squatted down on the purple tiled floor to get a closer look. The horrid pile of worms in front of him continuously writhed to create a soft, yet sickening, squelchy sound. The soldier found it curious how the worms never went astray from each other no matter how much they wriggled. Observing the mass, the descriptive line of text given to him on his cybernetic interface represented his feelings accurately. Generated from both factual data and his own subconscious and subjective thoughts, it simply read: _A disgusting pile of worms._

His stomach growled. He let out a sigh, knowing that he currently lacked the nanites to even buy a bag of chips from one of the Value-Rep™ replicators, let alone try hacking one to lower the prices. He stared down at the moderately sized mound in front of him for a moment longer, quietly psyching himself up for what he knew he had to do if he were to escape the unpleasantness of hunger pangs.

He brought a hand up to the side of his head, gently pressing down on a small panel affixed to his cyber rig. After a couple of seconds, he released, allowing the panel to swing up. The implant he currently had installed was pushed outward enough for him to grab. Bracing himself, he gently tugged on the implant with his index finger and thumb. As it slid out, he felt immeasurable dizziness before suddenly everything was normal again. This is an admittedly benign side effect of removing and installing implants - it always takes a moment for his brain to register the introduction or removal of extra instructions, and so intense dissociation suddenly manifests, and disappears. Now, to put this away.

Before going into his quantum storage unit (how else could one carry so much?) to stow the implant away, he inspected it closely while contemplating the near future. BrawnBoost™. It was his favourite one. The most useful. At least, if he hadn't needed to get into this situation. He found a slot to put it in where he'd easily find it afterwards. After a moment of looking through his things, he found the new implant he was looking for. WormBlood. What a strange name. He prompted for more info as he hovered over with the “Help” reticule on his interface... _"The WormBlood Implant is a high-powered blood filtering and reprocessing unit that acts to modify blood-borne annelid tissue so that it is benign in a human host. Because of the highly regen..."_ His reading trailed off. He couldn't postpone this anymore.

Yet again bringing his hand up to the tiny panel on the side of his head, he found the port and gently inserted the small piece of technology. This time, the dizziness was greater than he expected. His visual feed bugged out for a moment, and he was brought to his hands and knees. In just a few seconds though, he was back. His face was less than a foot away from the pile. _Kchkchkchk, vvvvvrrrrrr..._ Tiny servos inside his implant began to whir, and a strange compulsion overcame him as the apertures that made up his cybernetic eyes slowly opened up to their maximum circumference.

He lifted his hand, staring intensely as if slowly putting together every step on what to do with it next. He stretched his arm outwards, stretching for what felt like hours and hours, and his fingers curled into the slimy mass. Instead of wincing, or recoiling, or making a disgusted expression, a blank stare was all he gave. He pulled the handful of worms up to his face and sunk his teeth in, pulling his head away, and ripping the worms apart. And he went in again. And again. And like a feral animal, there was no stopping it. At least, until nothing was left.

When there were no longer any worms in sight, he went to remove the implant, though his movements were artificial, like he was on some sort of autopilot. After the multiple seconds it took for him to bounce back from dissociation, and the lens apertures returning to their normal size, he was left sitting on his knees. Green blood was splattered on the floor, the wall, and his hands. No doubt that it was on his face too.

A shaky sigh escaped him as he sat there in shock.

 _"Well..."_ he thought, on the verge of bursting into tears, _"...at least I'm not hungry anymore."_


End file.
